Sorry – Friends – New Brooklyn band alert but don’t fall asleep, really. This is a great, punchy pop song with an addictive tambourine shaking hook, and a sly sexy come on: “Why don’t you come on over to our house, now” – Grade: B+
We rock critics, bad ass bloggers, whatever the fuck we are, are part of a dying breed. You can’t make money making fun of pompous ass rock stars and you sure can’t make friends being on the side of the angels
The band sent me a stream of their first EP, The Killing Spree, and it won’t play but I am assuming it kills because, honestly, McGrath’s is one of those guys you just gotta wonder why more folks aren’t loving his sardonic, heartful songs.
Ugly bovver boy rockers put on lipstick and heels and make the oddest looking drags in existence while nailing down glam rock classics like this one – Grade: A
the joy of the song disappears into an ambient fog where Mary seems to be viewing the kids from a distance, Winters Of Discontent seem to be twisting the mood, it is a like a sulky teen brat moping in his bedroom (they should cover the Beach Boys”In My Room”). It is a perfectly self-obsessed.
“Well you know what, I always get to this point and go ‘well nothing’s going to top that’, and then something else comes along. But I’ve gotta say, it’s going to take something very special to top that one.”
The advise is pretty timeless, especially the part about shaving your legs. French girls will never have nice thing till they learn to shave all parts of themselves with hair, ame with hipie chicks.
Things are really different than they were 25 years ago, and that’s what makes Born This Way so relevant for me…We’re socially in a different place and it’s OK, we don’t have to all slice and hate each other anymore.”
I can live with Carly rae for the song of the summer, better than Gotye. It is a cheerful ditty and very easy to sing, with a simple enough lyrical kiil, “Don’t maybe call me, definitely call me” is what she is really saying.
You know all those weeks on the charts? Adele still hasn’t gone Diamond. So what does that mean when the most popular album in years and years can’t move 10M units? It means album sales are dead.
Swedish House Mafia come across all old school dance syle with a soaring synth that is like a tidal wave foaming up and spashing down. But the song is a little weak kneed and the mainman a bit disinvested – Grade: B+
No, he ain’t Babyface. But ask yourself this: who is? And while we are agreeing that he is not ready to claim the greatest living r&b songwriter crown from whoever owns it, also ask yourself this: who the hell owns it?
the Cougar country didn’t thrill me and if we are going to have two Neil Young parodies, why wasn’t one of them with Bruce Springsteen on “Sexy And I know It”. Plus, they could have easily released all three history of rap with Justin Timberlake
His complaint is that we accused him of being a racist off the back of an interview which he gave to the magazine. He believes the article was edited in such a way that made him seem reactionary.
If ever a band was too cool for their own good, this is that.The Toronto eletcronic rock band have been knocking around for over a decade and getting a hit here and there. I hope this terrific slow burn that starts Goth and then detours to atmospheric dance, is one of them – Grade: B+
hits me as to just how deep and wide the album is… I think the term is a Costello type album: it sprawls as both indie rock, hip hop, singersongwriter
From Manchester’s “Electric Circus” to “CBGB;’s” , great clubs spearheaded great movements in a Tolstoy like mix of history, a meme that caught fire with almost no pre-condition. It just happens because it just happens and it grabs people, all of us, and steamrolls history, the past
It starts terrific, “Every Single Night” -which I hated as a single and love as a leadoff song and “Daredevil” which is pretty excellent getting fucked in the middle of the night song, and then gets weirder.
Behemoth are pretty ferocious, Killing Joke got best album so that’s all good, Helen will be happy about Avenged Sevenfold. So I guess things change so slowly it ain’t that difficult to keep track. Plus? Hot chicks at the awards ceremony!
Lead singer Joe Cardarone has the attitude of a Jim Morrison nearing the seven minute mark of “The End” and the rest of the band play Nine Inch Nails, heavy industrial metal, but they have problems despite their fearlessness on stage
From the opening scattershot explosions to the thunderous cracker barrel conclusion, this is 35 minutes of the real thing that three minutes you against the door with some mighty fine punk pop classics
Tix have been changing hands for thousands of pounds back in the UK and now I come to think of it: somebody asked me if there was any band around I hadn’t seen that wanted to and I said, no, I’ve seen em all. But that isn’t true. i’ve never seen the Stone Roses and admire them tremendously.
given Presley’s state of mind while he was filming it, the concept of following a zombiefied Presley around for eternity while he lacklustly pursues love and success on his own terms, is actually kinda scary.
Not unfunny but a little too typical Fallon has big star sing a silly song (even though, why would a guy be ashamed on getting laid?). Still the “got another guys pants on is funny enough – Grade: B
I am not a Lana hater, I loved “Video Games” and I thought she was OK on SNL and I thought the album was really fabulous, But taking center stage on a flower strewn stage, to backing tapes, she performed a deadly ten song set culled from the album and without a surprise in sight, despite pretty good vocals, was skin crawlingly dire.
A brilliant bassy bellow of a voice, tailor made for soul and from an Earth moving “Someday We’ll be Together” through a handful of astounding and big ballads that make a mockery of the limitations of a two person band, Jahn sang his heart out and was barely more than puddle of sweat by the time he got to a brutal blues number “The Miner Song”
It took em long long enough, but Sheeran’s debut album is finally released Stateside so we can all flip on “Lego House”. Meanwhile, another Whitney song released and we can find out if Albarn (who hasn’t been on much of a roll lately) has destroyed Womack.
Ocean proves himself not in the bigger moments, but in this perfectly formed modern soul also ran, with a flipped out auto tuned middle, and treated keyboard backing track. Ocean doesn’t have the voive he needs but he has the one he has, and here he uses a good simile and a fine melody, clever beat and strong backing for a minor but pleasurable song – Grade: B+
Stumblebunny were a hard hitting relation of the UK’s pub rock and scuzz rock and metal riffing. Fast, clear, devastating and lead by Chris’ still discernable Iggyish good luck though the secret is probably David Whites scattershot and deadly guitar solos. They are fast and fluid moments of ferocity in a fast and furious show which, despite these cats being in their 50s, maybe 60s, showed no rust, no age, and oodles of charm.
A protest album in an age where the news is 24/7 and anybody who doesn’t get the message isn’t paying attention is, perhaps by definition, an effort in futility. And though lead singer Laura Berhenn has a terrific voice and can more than carry a song, first she has to write a song worth carrying. And after “Generals” and “Radiator Sister”. Plus her politics are puerile and I don’t like her haircut – Grade: C
The last time I saw the dB’s was over 30 years ago and I was not all that thrilled by the experience. But so what? With a new album to push, the reunited best band that never broke big boys have nothing to prove except that they feel good, Friday night at Le Poisson Rouge
So this is what former Boy Band superstar Gary Barlow got for a tremendous Royal Performance: 1) An Order of The British Empire (same one the Beatles got and Lennon returned) and 2) The number one album (and single) in the country. Those English are crazy…
Another heat seeking hit by the pop music machine. Ever since “Right Round”Flo Rida has been on a tear right up every chart in the world. This is his second smash and it isn’t even tied to anything. Sure I liked the Jepsen song as much as Prince Bieber, doesn’t mean I wanna hear it all summer.
I guess if you were a girl of a certain disposition you might find this enticing but I;m not and all I am wondering is why the hell Morrissey sang this with the Stone Roses in Barcelona. i think I blame Dave Matthews. I think it was he who initiated the entire guitar god as pussy willow. And no, the Rolling Stone interview didn’t help. Grade: C
“Who’s taking you home tonight?” sings Laura Jane Grace during the very first song of Against Me’s opening slot at T5 Friday night, “True Trans Soul Rebel” she replies on a sparkling new rocker that does the difficult. displaces concepts of dysfunction with axioms on lead singer sexiness
Give That Bass Player Some, Part One – James Brown – In 1979, Brown was zig zagging between hard business as usual funk and synth based disco funk and here the real thing won, though the chick backup singers may have been a balm to the age – Grade: B+
Here in the States, we consider it a mix of smart and silly, we can afford not to care after handing King George his hat back in the day. Will Elizabeth Rex ever retire? Morrissey is considering it yeah, but Lizzy? I sincerely doubt we will ever see her leaving any way except thru Westminster Abby.
Bob Dylan’s mom died in 2000, and Dylan, who seldom responds so clearly to a loss, wrote “set my dial on the radio, wish my mother was still alive” in 2001 on “Lonesome Boy Blues”.
This is one of a handful of times where Costello the song composer trumps Costello the songwriter. This is one of those rare songs where everything is perfect: the mood of distressed guilt, help together by the girl back up singers like a Greek chorus, and a metaphor playing on the origins of the city name. And finally the horns, adding to its anxious beauty. Grade: A+
Sharpe is better than he looks, Regina gave away the album with tickets, so figure they are a dead heat. Not bad at all, his debut album didn’t even chart. Also? if you sold 22,000 units last week you had a top ten album….
Of all the pop charts in all the world, this pop chart is the poppiest. It is the mainstreaming of pop , dance, boy bands, and multitracking ad infinitum. And at its best, Flo Rida, Rihanna, Minaj’s song, it’s fine with me.
This is 1931 and Bing Crosby is definitely not the singer he would become, it almost sounds like he’s using a bellhorn and, the gilted lover story, is glazed over, only Bing’s pleasure in the puns remains. And the song isn’t much either. The big band behind himis just a coupla strings, and it doesn’t swing. But there is a glimmer here of what is yet to come – Grade: B+
By the end of the set, the overwhelming smash down finale “Sun” , with a mix of dance and chants, they’ve sold me enough to wanna see them with the damn lights on.
So how does the big week of music measure up, you ask? Between the Beach Boys and Eric Benet and all points inbetween, it is a huge time for new album releases, but will anything last till this weekend?
Marky said, “Yo Chris, wha’diya gonna do now?” ” GOD PROTECTS DRUNKARDS AND FOOLS!”, I declared. “I’ll start my OWN band, and I’ll call it Stumblebunny!” I marched down to Max’s Kansas City and told them I have a new band and I want a date to play
remember seeing Neil Young in 1991 at the same venue, circa the first Iraq war, with a yellow ribbon around a tree mid-stage. A stupendous performance and if Neil is hard that good, it should be worthwhile.
My rule of thumb is never pick on people smaller than you are and NEVER write to please any one at all, and NEVER EVER EVER get too friendly with your subject matter.
Woody interviewed Curren$y for us some three years ago and Marsha I caught on stage last year. The reason we covered em, Curren$y long before he broke, you can hear on this fine rap plus soul song. A beauty. – Grade: A
When Wu Tang Clan headlined Hot 97 years ago and were pissed at the station, Ol’ Dirty Bastard called them out from the stage, saying he didn’t see why they were there at all since the radio station never played their music. They then proceeded to blow the Continental (now the Izod) down. I know this for sure, I was there.That’s how you respond to a slight (and Wu’s was real, not Minaj’s bullshit whingeing).
There is no fat guy worth mentioning, no black guy worth mentioning, and Kristin Wiig is surreally annoying at least half of the time. The writing often goes from dull to dullard and… I guess that’s it. I like the music, helen doesn’t. And I’ll miss Andy, who is going to the BBC to work on a Britcom!
